are c kites still king of explosive amplitude (maybe not hang time tho which is second rate to me)? not sure i would put my $$ either way nowdays as there are for sure some high jumping hybrids around, still prefer the cs tho myself

I recall hearing that Red Bull pulled out of promoting the King of the Air because kitesurfing had become too mainstream when the Maui event ended. It is good they are behind it again and from the photos, you will have trouble finding another sport that could create such images. I collected images from the Red Bull Content Pool, some off Facebook, youtube and other places and put them together along with some background information in an early writeup of the event yesterday.